Sounds easy huh? Well nothing comes easy in life. There’s a science to everything. And there’s definitely a wrong and right way to do blogging for your business. Here are some wrong ways to blog for your business.

more marketers are realising the crucial role of ‘Content Curation’. So it was no surprise this aspect of marketing was explored on the first day of Module 3 of the Professional Certificate in Social Media Strategy course. With the second day focusing on Business Blogging and it’s advantages.

And so was the start of a two day sojourn into the mind of a Content Curator and Business Blogger. After brief introductions and moments of awkward silence we were on our way.

Gone are the days of mass media messages. Enter online streaming, viral videos, blogs, social media………. exit banner ads, radio ads, newspapers, magazines. People are tired of the ‘infoxication’. They want to read about what interest them not about what you’re selling, how you’re selling it and how much you’re selling it for.

So how do you attract customers in an age dubbed as the ‘Golden Age of Laziness?’ – Content Marketing. What can help with Content Marketing? – Content Curation. The statistics speak for themselves. In a survey done by Hanley Wood, 78% of chief marketing officers say that content marketing is the future of marketing.

But what’s all the fuss about?

What’s in it for you?

Smaller budget needed.

Increases engagement.

Generates respect in the industry.

Attracts and keeps attracting.

Improves SEO.

Creates long term conversations.

How can you do it?

Blogs/ articles.

White papers/ e-books.

Testimonials

Infographics

To-do guides

F.A.Q’s

Images, videos, GIF’s

Webinars, periscopes, podcasts.

Polls, surveys

Games, apps, mashups

Where can you put it?

Website, blog.

Social Media

Forums, wikis, communities, message boards

That’s a lot of information, so how do we go about it all? A ‘Content Media Plan’. Here are the steps:

Establish objectives.

Decide who your target audience is.

What are your keywords/ themes/ categories?

What will your online voice be?

Set a calendar, assign responsibilities.

Select channels to disperse information.

What’s the budget? How to gauge ROI?

Measure, measure, measure.

But what happens if you don’t have the resources to create original content? No need to ‘re-invent the wheel’. This

is where ‘Content Curation’ comes in. A curator searches for relevant information, gathers, organises and presents that data in a form that is easy to digest. If you’re thinking ‘ but that’s stealing information’, then you’re paying attention. There’re a couple things to keep in mind.

Never, never copy and paste whole content without permission.

Always acknowledge sources.

Use only a few quotes.

Stick to these and you’ll be playing fair. Let the games begin …

But wait … how do we go about finding all this information? 🎼 ♫’easy like sunday morning’♫🎼. You have many options.

These are more than enough to get started on Content Curation. So don’t get caught up in the creation process. If you’ve got writers block or simply don’t have the resources to create original content, don’t give up … there are ways to get around these problems. So start curating today! And be sure to share your information on as many platforms as possible, including your blog.